to evidently was to give an
account of those members of the family to which Cassiodorus belonged
who had distinguished themselves in literature. The words 'Ex genere
Cassiodororum' are perhaps a gloss of the transcribers. At least it
does not appear that they would correctly describe the descent of
Symmachus and Boethius, though they were relations of Cassiodorus,
being descended from or allied to the great house of the Aurelii from
which he also sprang. Probably several other names may have been
noticed in the original treatise, but the only three as to which the
'Anecdoton' informs us are the three as to whom information is most
acceptable--Symmachus, Boethius, and Cassiodorus himself.

[Sidenote: Information as to life of Symmachus.]

I. The name of Q. Aurelius Memmius _Symmachus_ was already known to us
as that of the friend, guardian, and father-in-law of Boethius, and
his fellow-sufferer from the outburst of suspicious rage which
disgraced the last years of Theodoric. That he was Consul in 485
(under the dominion of Odovacar), and that he had at the time of his
fall attained the honoured position of Father of the Senate[102], we
also know from the 'Consular Fasti' and the 'Anonymus Valesii.' This
extract tells us that he had attained the rank of Patricius, which may
perhaps have been bestowed upon him when he laid down the Consulship.
He was 'a philosopher, and a modern imitator of the ancient Cato; but
surpassed the virtues of the men of old by [his devotion to] our most
holy religion.' This sentence quite accords with all that we hear of
the character of Symmachus from our other authorities--the 'Anonymus
Valesii,' Procopius, and Boethius. The blending of old Roman gravity
and Christian piety in such a man's disposition is happily indicated
in the words before us. It would be an interesting commentary upon
them if we were to contrast the career of the Christian Symmachus, who
suffered in some sense as a martyr for the Nicene Creed under
Theodoric, with that of his ancestor the Pagan Symmachus, who, 143
years before, incurred the anger of Gratian by his protests against
the removal of the Altar of Victory from the Senate House, and the
curtailment of the grant to the Vestal Virgins.

[Footnote 102: Caput Senati. This, not Caput Senatus, is the form
which we find in Anon. Valesii. Usener suggests (p. 32) that Symmachus
probably became Caput Senati on the death of Festus, who had held that
position from 501 to